Fluoridated drinking water has been hailed as one of these top 10 public health achievements Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
He’s calling now Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.– possibly on the way to lead the health initiatives of the next presidential administration – as a practice that should be stopped. He recently confirmed Donald Trump said he would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office.
Over the weekend, Trump he told NBC News He did not discuss the matter with Kennedy, saying, “But I think it’s fine. You know it’s possible.”
On Wednesday morning, Kennedy spoke to NPR, Warning in the morning edition“We don’t need fluoride in our water. It’s a very bad way to get into our systems.”
Below is some information on fluoride in drinking water, the history of its controversy, and what the science says.
What is fluoride?
Fluoride is the chemical ion of the mineral fluorine. It is naturally present in trace amounts, he says CDCin soil, water, plants and some food sources including plants and animals. It can also be released from volcanic emissions or as a by-product of aluminum, fertilizer and iron ore manufacturing.
Once inside the body, he says National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary SupplementsAbout 80% of what is ingested is absorbed gastrointestinal tract, about 50% retained in the body of adults – all but 1% is stored in the bones and teeth – and the other 50% excreted in the urine. In young children, up to 80% of absorbed fluoride is retained, as bones and teeth absorb more than adults.
Why is there fluoride in drinking water?
To avoid fluorides or reverse tooth lock and stimulate new bone formation, according to the NIH.
(1945 in Grand Rapids, Michiganbecame the first city in the world to fluoridate its drinking water. This followed a doctor’s research into fluoride and fluorosis—the discoloration of tooth enamel from excess fluoride—and believed that safe levels could help prevent tooth decay.
Grand Rapids fluoridation became a 15-year project, he says National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Researchresearchers monitor the rate of tooth decay among 30,000 school children; After 11 years, it was found that the cavity rate dropped by more than 60% among children in Grand Rapids born after fluoride was added to the water supply. It was hailed as a scientific breakthrough that could revolutionize dental care.
Since 1962, the US Public Health Service has recommended adding fluoride to tap water to reduce the risk and severity of tooth decay, according to the NIH. Today, CDC notesthe recommended concentration—which is not mandatory and is a local, not federal, decision—is 0.7 mg/L. The CDC says that drinking fluoridated water keeps teeth strong and reduces cavities in children and adults by about 25%. (Another common source of fluoride is toothpaste, and when you brush, the fluoride sticks to the surface of the tooth, to the CDCand increases the amount of fluoride in saliva, which helps rebuild the outer enamel layer).
Currently, fluoridated municipal drinking water (including tap water and food and beverages prepared with municipal drinking water) accounts for about 60% of fluoride intake in the US in 2022, says the CDCMore than 209 million people, or 72.3% of the US population, served by public water supplies had access to water with levels of fluoride that prevent tooth decay.
According to the chemicals used to fluoridate drinking water in the United States NSFthey are fluorosilicic acid, sodium fluorosilicate and sodium fluoride, which are by-products of manufacturing. phosphate fertilizer.
CDC a web page lists fluoride levels in tap water by region.
Is fluoride in drinking water safe?
Yes, says the CDC, which released it a statement earlier this year on the safety and efficacy of fluoridated water.
He stated: “The safety and benefits of fluoride are well documented and have been reviewed by various scientific and public health organizations. The US Public Health Service; the UK National Institute for Health Research, Center for Review and Dissemination, University of York; and the National Health and Medical Research Council In Australia, expert panel reviews have concluded that community water fluoridation is a safe and effective way to promote good oral health and prevent decay US Community Preventive Services Task Forcebased on systematic reviews of the scientific literature, made a strong recommendation in 2001 and again in 2013 for community water fluoridation for the prevention and control of dental caries.’
Why is fluoride in tap water controversial?
Posted in his comment on November 2 to XKennedy wrote, “Fluoride is an industrial waste linked to arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.”
While he may be correct about his source, the CDC, in its latest statement, disputes the health risks posed by Kennedy, stating that the only potential danger is fluorosis from excessive fluorosis over a long period of time.
“An expert panel of scientists from the United States and other countries, with expertise in a variety of health and science disciplines,” he noted, “considered the evidence available in the peer-reviewed literature and found no compelling scientific evidence linking community water fluoridation. an adverse effect or systemic disorder such as cancer, Down syndrome, heart disease, osteoporosis and bone fractures, immune disorders, low intelligence, kidney disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, or an increased risk of allergic reactions.
This is not to say that the addition of fluoride to water has been without controversy all these years, beginning in the late 1940s, by activists on the extreme right of American politics. confirmed that it is fluoridation it was part of a wider plot to impose a socialist or communist regime.
Recently, in 2016, a Harvard Public Health Article questioned the safety of fluoridated drinking water, increasing the chances of brain toxicity, based on laboratory animal studies and other studies linking it to learning, memory, and cognitive deficits.
The story prompted a flurry of letters, some supportive, including one from a dentist, researcher and former head of Preventive Dentistry at the University of Toronto who worked for years. full scientific review fluoride toxicity. He express“I was trained in traditional dentistry and accepted for many years the prevailing view of the Canadian and US dental/medical establishment that water fluoridation is ‘safe and effective’…I was wrong.”
But more respondents strongly criticized the article, such as one from a group of dental professionals, including the dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, calling for it to be retracted, and providing pages of information on how the article went wrong.
according to to the NIHlarge doses of fluoride—usually from rare accidents with excessively high levels of fluoride in water or accidental ingestion of topical fluoride dental products—can cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, periostitis, and, rarely, death. But such an acute dose, the NIH says, “would be nearly impossible to obtain from water or toothpaste containing standard levels of added fluoride.”
Another possible result of excessive fluoride intake is skeletal fluorosis, which can cause symptoms ranging from joint pain to osteoporosis and muscle wasting. But it is “extremely rare” in the U.S., the NIH noted, with no evidence that recommended levels of fluoride in tap water are affected.
Also, the NIH adds, while one study found a link between higher maternal urinary fluoride concentrations during pregnancy and higher rates of neurobehavioral problems in a 3-year-old child, another similar study found no such link.
As for the claim that higher fluoride intakes in early development are associated with lower IQ and other cognitive impairments, the NIH adds, researchers behind a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine review believe the evidence is weak and methodologically flawed.
Finally, regarding fluoride and bone cancer claims, American Cancer Society (ACS) He notes that many systematic reviews of the connection have found “inconclusive” results and “no clear association.” He notes that part of the debate about a possible link stems from an older study on lab animals (1990) that found osteosarcoma – a rare bone cancer – to be higher than expected in male lab rats that drank fluoridated water.
Many population-based studies, however, have looked at the potential link between water fluoride levels and cancer and “have not found a strong association with cancer,” the ACS reported.
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